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AT&T GigaPower: Do you have a need for gigabit speeds?

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Summary

AT&T is expanding its U-verse GigaPower service, which uses fiber-to-the-home to provide broadband speeds up to 1Gbps, from 15 to 25 markets across the US. But the question is: Do consumers need gigabit broadband speeds? The answer is no, in my opinion, but consumers continue to sign up for GigaPower. The following internal dialogue of a real GigaPower customer (that’s me) might help explain.

Give me value – and 700Mbps is nice too

Being a telecoms analyst, I couldn’t resist the temptation to sign up for AT&T GigaPower the second it launched in my area. Especially after they dug up my street and yard, which was fun to watch, and didn’t take a long as you’d think.

But being a telecoms analyst comes with its drawbacks, including the need to analyze anything to do with telecoms. In the case of GigaPower, this led to an internal Q&A something like this:

Q: Do you need 1Gbps broadband?

A: Not really.

Q. Did you sign up for the service?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Any particular reason?

A: Because AT&T matched the prices of Google Fiber, which is also deploying in my area (though that service is not available yet). That meant I could switch from a double-play cable package with TV and 15Mbps broadband to a triple-play U-verse package with TV, phone, and 1Gbps broadband for about the same price: $150 a month.

Q: Sounds like a sweet deal.

A: Competition is a wonderful thing. And, actually, that reminds me – on the same day that Google Fiber announced it was launching in my area, AT&T started laying fiber in my neighborhood.

Q: Probably just a coincidence. Anyway, what’s GigaPower like?

A: The funny thing is, as soon as my GigaPower service was up and running, my first broadband speed test clocked in at an amazing…10Mbps downstream.

Q: Correct me if I’m wrong, but 10Mbps is 1% of 1Gbps.

A: You got it, math whiz. But after a few calls to GigaPower customer service, and a reboot of the GigaPower U-verse gateway, I was up to 90Mbps downstream and upstream.

A: To cut a long story short, it turned out to be the PC – it’s a few years old and has a 100Mbps network card, so that was the main culprit. And, to be fair, the GigaPower support tools check a host of device issues that can slow the service, ranging from old network cards (wired and wireless) to processors that can’t handle gigabit speeds. In other words, 1Gbps is a lot faster than a lot of devices can handle.

Q: So other devices are faster?

A: I just got a new PC, which clocked in at 700Mbps downstream and 200Mbps upstream, again via wired Ethernet.

Q: That’s more like it. You’re up to 70% of the advertised speeds for downloads.

A: That’s right, an impressive number. But on the other hand, if we switch from wired Ethernet to Wi-Fi, the speeds drop way back, even with 802.11ac devices. The vagaries of wireless.

Q: Well, what’d you expect? Anyway, last question: Are you hooked? After 1Gbps broadband, is there no going back?

A: As long as it’s the same price as 50Mbps broadband, I’m hooked. Otherwise, not so much.

Q: Why’s that?

A: Because I got along fine with 15Mbps, and anything more than 50Mbps is probably overkill for my needs. But if companies like AT&T can deliver a triple-play service with 1Gbps broadband at the same price as my cable triple-play service with 15Mbps broadband, I’ll sign up the instant the service is available. (Which I did.) Plus, it gives me something to write about.

As the overall IoT market continues to grow rapidly, its growth is benefiting certain connectivity players and industries far more than others. While LPWAN rollouts are growing quickly, M2M will continue to be the source of most telco IoT revenue.

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